1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of computer-aided modeling and pertains particularly to methods and apparatus for managing physics simulation of three dimensional objects over multiple client computing appliances.
2. Discussion of the State of the Art
In the art of computer-aided modeling, virtual environments (VEs) are created and exist for such as educational and entertainment purposes. Virtual reality games, three dimensional toys, and other types of virtual environments exist where clients subscribe to a gaming site or virtual-world site and engage in interaction with the virtual presentations. Virtual environments comprise objects with attributes and properties. Many of these objects require physics simulation of the objects to emulate the results of object interaction during runtime of the VE. A rigid-body-dynamics simulation engine is an example of one processing engine adapted to simulate motion and dynamics of a three dimensional object in a virtual environment.
As users demand larger and more complex VEs, physics simulation of rigid body dynamics of a very large virtual world may become a challenge to accomplish on a single computer. Simulating a large virtual world is computationally expensive and requires robust server resources.
Therefore, what is clearly needed is a system and methods for managing physics simulation of objects in a virtual environment distributed over multiple client computing devices of clients engaged in interacting with the virtual environment. A system such as this would decrease load on a core server machines, reduce perceived lag time between interaction and simulation results and would result in a capability of offering larger and more complex virtual environments with less expense relative to computer processing resources required to simulate the physics of the environment.